MUSCAT: Salalah Club edged Ahli Sidab 2-1 in the final to emerge champions of Oman Hockey Youth League 2023 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Saturday night.
Sohar Club finished third after beating Al Nasr 1-0 in the third-place play-off match in the league competed by seven clubs namely Ahli Sidab, Seeb, Al Nasr, Salalah, Sohar, Al Nahda, and Nizwa.
Among individual awards of the Youth League, Ahli Sidab’s Laith al Wahaibi was adjudged the best player while team-mate Rashid al Alawi won the promising player award.
Sohar’s Abdullah bin Walid al Hassani emerged the top-scorer with 17 goals. Salalah’s Rayan bin Mubarak al Alawi won the award for the best goalkeeper and Ahli Sidab’s Ahmed bin Khalfan al Naabi was selected as the promising goalkeeper of the league.
The closing ceremony of the league was held under the auspices of Mohsen bin Hani al Bahrani, CEO of the Mohsen Haider Darwish Company, who was accompanied by Dr Marwan bin Juma al Juma, Chairman of Oman Hockey Association (OHA). The chief guest gave away the trophies and medals to the top place winners.
Dr Khamis al Rahbi, OHA Secretary-General, and Zuhair al Ajmi, Chairman of the Competitions Committee of OHA, were present.
Al Rahbi said the Youth League is growing in stature.
“This edition of Oman Hockey Youth League showed good standard and we expect it to grow further in the coming editions,” the OHA Secretary-General said.
Al Ajmi congratulated the top three winners.
“The clubs have done a good job in preparing the players who impressed with their skills during the league. There are some good finds for the national team as well,” the OHA Competitions Committee head said.
Few weeks ago, Salalah had claimed second in the under-18 hockey5s tournament and team player Hussein Hatem Faraj Allah was ecstatic after winning the youth league title.
“We had a tough final against Ahli Sidab. We managed to secure the win with the collective effort.”
There were goals galore in the league with third round witnessing 32 goals scored in six matches. The second round saw 27 goals in six matches while the six matches of the first round resulted in 28 goals.
Al Nahda suffered heavy defeats of 17-0 against Sohar, 11-0 against Seeb and 8-0 against Salalah in the three rounds.
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